Mia Matsumiya | |
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![]() Matsumiya, in 2015 | |
Background information | |
Genres | Avant-garde music Experimental music |
Occupation(s) | Instrumentalist |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, violin, viola |
Years active | 2001–present |
Labels | Tzadik Records |
Mia Matsumiya is an American violinist who is a former member of Kayo Dot, Gregor Samsa, and Tartar Lamb. She has also performed on albums with Daughters and Ghastly City Sleep. In 2015, her Instagram account chronicling the sexual and other harassment that had been directed toward her on social media during the past ten years received international attention.
Originally from Needham, Massachusetts, Matsumiya attended the Commonwealth School in Boston for high school. After high school, she attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she left to pursue music.[ citation needed ] Standing at 4'9" (145 cm), Matsumiya would often hide in band lockers in middle school and in newspaper racks in later years. [1] [2]
Matsumiya made her debut on Kayo Dot's 2003 album Choirs of the Eye , as well as their discography for the next ten years. [3] She later appeared on Gregor Samsa's album Rest , and an album with Tartar Lamb. [4] [5] In 2009, she also appeared on Maudlin of the Well's Part the Second . [6]
In 2015, Matsumiya created the Instagram account called "Perv_magnet", where she uploaded sexually harassing and sometimes violently threatening messages that she had received from men over the past ten years. According to Matsumiya, the project was created to highlight the abuse and misogyny that women face online, as well as the racism she faced. However, she received a small amount of criticism from people who claimed that she uploaded the examples to brag about receiving "compliments", an accusation which she denied. [7] [8] [9] [10] In a 2014 interview with Bearded Gentlemen Music, her former Kayo Dot band member Toby Driver alluded to stalkers that she faced. [11]
Matsumiya has a daughter, Kira, born in 2016. [12]
Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.
Toby Driver is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, producer, label owner, and artist, best known for his work as the leader of the experimental bands Kayo Dot and maudlin of the Well.
Kayo Dot is an American avant-garde metal band. Formed in 2003 by Toby Driver after the break-up of maudlin of the Well, they released their debut album Choirs of the Eye on John Zorn's Tzadik Records that same year. Since then, Kayo Dot's lineup has drastically changed over the years. Toby Driver is the only founding member of the band still remaining, save for frequent lyrical contributions from former motW member Jason Byron. Up until 2011, the lineup was constantly shifting, and Kayo Dot's sound consistently changed over the years, featuring a wide variety of instrumentation including guitar, drums, bass, violin, saxophone, vibraphone, synthesizers, clarinets and flutes. Underground metal audiences warmly received the group upon its early existence, with the 2003 album Choirs of the Eye and the 2006 album Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue both becoming underground hits in the progressive metal scene.
maudlin of the Well is an avant-garde metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. Their music contains elements from many different genres including jazz, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, post rock, art rock, progressive metal, doom metal, death metal, and gothic metal, as well as chamber music, ambient music and electronic music. After a five-year hiatus, the band re-united to record their latest album, Part the Second, which was funded by fan donations and released online May 14, 2009 for free.
Red Sparowes is an American, Los Angeles-based post-rock band, comprising current and former members of Isis, Marriages, The Nocturnes, Halifax Pier, Angel Hair and Pleasure Forever. Their sound is characteristic of soundscape-influenced experimental rock, with an otherwise uncommon extensive use of a pedal steel guitar.
Samsas Traum is a German band fronted by Alexander Kaschte. Their music consists of elements of gothic metal, symphonic metal, industrial metal, black metal and cantastoria. The name is derived from the protagonist Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915).
Robotic Empire is an American independent record label based out of Richmond, Virginia, specializing in hardcore punk, heavy metal, and alternative rock. Some of the most popular bands signed to the label over the years have been pg.99, City of Caterpillar, Crowpath, The Red Chord, Circle Takes the Square, Cursive, Versoma, Daughters, Isis, Kayo Dot, Cave In, Red Sparowes, Torche and Hot Cross. Robotic Empire was known as Robodog Records for their first 14 releases.
Gregor Samsa is an American band from Virginia, United States, formed in 2000 and fronted by Champ Bennett. It takes its name from the main character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis.
Choirs of the Eye is the debut studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot, released on Tzadik Records in 2003. It was released shortly after the breakup of maudlin of the Well, with the band consisting of several members from the former band as well as guest performers who are friends of band members. The album is titled after a lyric from the maudlin of the Well song "Blight of River-Systems", on My Fruit Psychobells...A Seed Combustible. SputnikMusic voted it as one of the best metal albums of the 2000s. The group performed the entire album in 2010 to two sold out nights in Brooklyn, New York.
Iodine Recordings is an independent record label based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Iodine Recordings releases punk, hardcore, and indie rock music. It was once home to bands such as Brand New, Orange Island, Smoke or Fire, There Were Wires, Gregor Samsa, and more.
Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue is the second studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot, released on Robotic Empire in 2006. The album received high praise from Pitchfork, Lambgoat, and Sputnikmusic, the last of whom named it the #2 album of 2006.
Baliset is an American hard rock / heavy metal band based in Boston, Massachusetts, and is the project of Greg Massi, known for his work with the avant-garde bands maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot.
Coyote is the fourth studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot, released April 20, 2010 on Hydra Head Records. The album is a single narrative-driven, long-form composition in five movements. The story and text were provided by a close, terminally-ill friend of the band, Yuko Sueta, in the final stage of her life, while the music was written by Toby Driver in a so-called "goth fusion" style, combining elements of early Cure, Faith and the Muse, and Bauhaus with further influences from Herbie Hancock's psychedelic jazz album Sextant and Scott Walker's recent experimental album The Drift. Sueta's story and lyrics were constructed with deliberate melodrama as part of the intended gothic aesthetic, expressing the protagonist's loneliness and longing to be in a better place, and her journey through her own personal looking-glass through a hallucinatory world of fear and wonder.
Tartar Lamb is an experimental avant-garde band, consisting of Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya, both leading members of the experimental band Kayo Dot. The band originally was formed in 2006 as a means for Toby Driver to experiment with his ideas for a guitar-violin duo. The duo released their first album, Sixty Metonymies, in 2007. The band was augmented by trumpet and percussion by Tim Byrnes and Andrew Greenwald, respectively. In 2011, the band returned with their sophomore effort, Polyimage of Known Exits, under the name Tartar Lamb II. This album was funded entirely by fans via a Kickstarter project.
Lindsey Stirling is an American violinist, songwriter, and dancer. She presents choreographed violin performances, in live and music videos found on her official YouTube channel, which she created in 2007.
Gamma Knife is the fifth studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot. The album was self-released through frontman Toby Driver's Ice Level Music via Bandcamp on January 4, 2012, following the group's departure from Hydra Head Records. The bulk of the album was recorded live at Brooklyn, New York venue Littlefield on October 5, 2011, with the remainder recorded at Driver's residence in late 2011. It was mixed by longtime producer Randall Dunn. It is notable for beginning the return to Driver's metal roots and harsh vocals used in Choirs of the Eye. The vinyl and CD copies are both available via the group's Bandcamp.
Hubardo is the sixth studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot. It is a concept double album self-released and funded through pre-orders on frontman Toby Driver's Ice Level Records in 2013. It is the follow-up to Gamma Knife, which was released in 2012. It is Kayo Dot's longest album and its first double album, and contains aspects of black metal, post-rock, jazz fusion, and chamber music. It was picked as the 4th best album of 2013 on indie music website SputnikMusic.
Coffins on Io is the seventh studio album by American avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot, released in the UK on August 14, 2014 and in the US on October 13 through experimental metal label The Flenser. It is a follow-up to 2013's Hubardo. It's the first album from Kayo Dot to not be self-released since 2012's Gamma Knife. Coffins on Io marks a notable change in sound. It combines influences of Type O Negative, The Sisters of Mercy, Peter Gabriel, dark wave and other 80s electronic musicians. It combines aspects of electronic music, jazz fusion, post-punk, gothic rock and new wave. It was produced by Toby Driver.
SWMRS, pronounced 'swimmers', are an American punk rock band formed in Piedmont, California in 2004 by Cole Becker and Joey Armstrong, with Becker's brother Max Becker joining only a few weeks afterwards. They drew on a mix of influences ranging from the Beach Boys to the Ramones to create their own brand of rock. The band added Travis Neumann in 2009, who later left in 2014 due to creative differences. The band released a demo and a string of EPs from 2008 to 2010. The band released their first album, Don't Be a Dick, on June 14, 2011. The band's second album, Lost at Seventeen, was released on June 11, 2013. They added Sebastian Mueller as the bassist in 2014. The band's third studio album, and their first under the name SWMRS after dropping their former name, Drive North, was released February 12, 2016, via Uncool Records. Drive North was later re-released after the band was signed to record label Fueled by Ramen on October 13, 2016.
The Anchoress is the stage name of Welsh-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and author Catherine Anne Davies.
Pretty much most of my life now, I've encountered Asian fetishists, pedophiles, stalkers, racists, and who-knows-how-many unsolicited sexual comments. ... It had gotten to the point where someone would send the most scathing, racist, violent thing to me -- like rape or death threats -- and I would barely have a reaction.